Hughes 500D

 
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Hughes 500D

 

 

Technical Specs

The Hughes 500D employs a Funkey pre-painted fuselage from Century Helicopter Products

A Hirobo Sceadu Evo 50 that has been converted to electric, using the Hirobo conversion kit, was chosen to serve as the mechanics.  A machined aluminum block, with cooling fins, holds the Hacker B50-20XL motor, bolting into the frames using the same holes that the usual .50 nitro engines use.  The motor shaft has an adapter that allows it to bolt to the standard flywheel which then fits up into the standard clutch endbell and pinion of the original Evo.  This allows the motor to spool up before clutch engagement and provides a somewhat realistic turbine spool-up sound when using an ESC with soft start.

The Hacker motor receives its power from a Kontronic Jazz 55-10-32 ESC set to governor mode.  This in turn recieves power from two 7 cell emoli packs wired in parallel (7S2P 6000 mAh).  This arrangement allows for 10+ minute flight times with plenty of reserve.

 

The Hughes 500D has been de-commisioned, but was a successful easy sport scale project.  We'll be looking for another scale project in the near future.

Other equipment includes:

Futaba GY401 gyro and 9254

R5014 receiver

Futaba 9252 cyclic servos

standard 1500 mAh NiCad rcvr pack
The Hughes began as a used Sceadu Evo 50 electric conversion bought on Runryder.  It was built as an 8S Lipo setup using Hirobo's conversion kit.
All uneccessary weight was removed after intitial airframe flight testing with 2 x 7S emoli packs and the new avionics.
A closeup of the electric conversion.  It bolts in where a .50 nitro engine goes and uses the original clutch arrangement minus the fan.  I added a small 5VDC fan just in front of this casing to provide cooling in the enclosed fuselage.
Kontronic Jazz 55-10-32 fits nicely on the conversion kit's ESC and battery tray.  The batteries are fitted onto the wooden floor of the fuselage.
Tail boom prepped.  I later added additional foam near the end for a more secure fit.  The Funkey tail boom needs to be cut down more than the instructions call for to provide clearance between the boom and tail rotor case.
The Funkey fuselage is fairly straight forward to host the mechanics.  Holes for the Evo are already pre-drilled.
This is what the tail boom looks like before I realized I needed additional clearance.  After a crash, I cut down the fuse more and used a stock pushrod and additional foam.  Bigger SAB tail blades were also called for.

Emoli pack with original interconnects, balancing leads, and power leads

emoli pack sprayed with rubber insulation

The final product ready to take flight.